THE BREAKFAST BRIEFING

Last week’s Fed meeting prompted a few bears to cave on their pessimistic forecasts.

BMO Capital Markets strategist Brian Belski and Barclays strategist Barry Knapp each boosted their year-end price targets on Friday. They both see the S&P 500 rising another 5.3% by year’s-end, which would come on top of the 20% gain so far this year.

The one catalyst driving their decisions: the Fed keeping its $85 billion monthly bond-buying programs intact.

Mr. Belski, who boosted his target to 1800 from 1650, called the Fed’s decision “a game changer” at least through the end of the year and potentially into the first half of 2014.

Mr. Knapp of Barclays shared similar sentiment. He boosted his 2013 price target to 1800 from 1600. “Until 1:59 PM ET Wednesday, we continued to have a high degree of confidence in our forecast,” he said. But now, he doesn’t expect the Fed will start reducing its bond purchases until December at the earliest.

And given that Lawrence Summers is out of the race to be the next Fed chairman, whoever takes the helm will likely share similar views as Ben Bernanke, he says.

At the same time, however, the worry is complacency could settle into the markets. More and more market watchers predict the rally will continue even amid continued uncertainty over what to expect the Fed will do next.

Then there is the looming fight between Congress and the President over the federal debt limit. The Treasury Department says by mid-October, the U.S. will be unable to pay its bills unless Congress raises the debt ceiling.

But short-term moves aside, it’s hard to argue against the stamina this bull market has shown in recent months and years. The S&P 500 is up 4.7% in September, 20% for the year and 153% from its bear-market low in March 2009.

“Sometimes bull markets have a mind of their own, and this one is no different,” says Mr. Belski of BMO. “Therefore, conventional fundamental analysis and discipline are likely to take a back seat to momentum and technicals over the next few quarters, in our view.”

Morning MoneyBeat Daily Factoid: On this day in 1846, it is believed that German astronomer Johann Gottfried Galle discovered the planet Neptune.

-Steven Russolillo

STOCKS TO WATCH

BlackBerry is likely to be in focus Monday after its shares slumped Friday, losing 17% to close at $8.725 after the mobile tech company said that second-quarter results would come in well below Wall Street’s expectations and that it planned to cut 4,500 jobs.

BlackBerry is scheduled to report full quarterly earnings on Sept. 27.

On Friday, the company said it expects to report revenue of around $1.6 billion for the quarter, compared with the $3.04 billion expected by analysts, according to consensus estimates from FactSet. It also expects a GAAP net operating loss in the range of $950 million to $995 million for the quarter. BlackBerry also plans to lay off 4,500 employees.

Also Friday, Apple began selling its new 5S and 5C iPhones, with reports indicating strong demand for the iPhone 5S, particularly for the one that comes in the new gold color. After just five minutes of sales, the new gold-colored iPhones were out of stock in London.

Apple stores saw predictably long lines at its retail stores worldwide on Friday, though the lines don’t always provide a strong read-through to long-term demand. Shares of Apple closed at $467.41 on Friday, down 1%.

Meanwhile, Red Hat was scheduled to report second-quarter earnings after the market close on Monday. FactSet-polled analysts expect the open source software solutions provider to report quarterly earnings of 33 cents a share on sales of $372.1 million.

Hog Prices Fall Back After Rally: “Hog traders are bracing for a glut of swine—and lower prices—now that late summer heat that kept many of the pigs off the market has ended.”

Twitter Pitches Itself to TV Networks: “Twitter has been courting television networks and advertisers as it rolls out more-sophisticated marketing products. New partnerships are likely this week, as Twitter executives gather with the media industry for the Adweek conference in New York.”